Exploring the World of Champagne: From Grapes to Bubbles

Written by Luis Rivera

Illustration by Soraya Javan

Historically, champagne was deemed synonymous with celebrations, promotions, and/or landmark events in people’s lives. The sommelier mentality, however, is that life’s a party, so champagne goes with everything.

Champagne is a region in the northeastern part of France. By law, no one is allowed to put ‘champagne’ on the label if the grapes are not planted within the designated appellation. As far as grapes go, there are three varieties:  Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier.

These grapes span across five smaller areas in Champagne, called subregions — think boroughs of New York City. Some grapes grow better in certain subregions than others. For example, the Montagne de Reims grows Pinot Noir, the Vallee de la Marne grows Pinot Meunier and the Côte des Blancs grows Chardonnay. The other lesser-known region, that’s actually making a pretty big splash these days, is the Aube — the most southern subregion in Champagne full of smaller producers making promising, delicious wines.

Making any kind of wine is a group effort. There are growers/producers, and larger houses or wineries. On more than one occasion, these individual responsibilities blend together pending the size of their team.

Everything starts with the farmers/growers. They have different names, but it all deals with dirt and seeds. Smaller teams make smaller batches of wine or sell their goods to larger houses.

Larger houses/wineries either purchase said grapes in-bulk and/or have their own vineyard, allowing them to make larger batches of champagne. Some names you might know would be Veuve Clicquot, Moët & Chandon, and Perrier-Jouĕt. 

According to regional experts, there are about 1.6k growers and 320 houses in the French appellation.

So, what’s the deal with champagne’s fermentation process? Well, for starters, it uniquely goes through two fermentations after the grapes are destemmed then pressed to extract the juice.

The first fermentation is the same process as making a still white or rosé wine. Here the liquid is fermented in a vessel allowing for the CO2 or bubbles to escape, thus making a still wine. 

The second fermentation happens in the bottle the consumer eventually buys. The now still wine lives in its bottle with some cane or beet sugar and yeast — capped and ready to ferment again. The yeast eats the sugar, producing air bubbles. Once the yeast runs out of food, producers start riddling. Yes, riddling.

Once the sediment is collected, producers dip the upside-down bottle into a very (very, very) cold solution, turning all that sediment created with the yeast into an ice cube of sorts. They then flip the bottle right-side-up. That little ice cube of gunk pops out, and producers immediately cork what’s left in the bottle. Boom, you have champagne!

Blanc de blancs: Translates to “white from white.” This means the champagne comes from chardonnay grapes.

Blanc de noirs: Translates to “white from black.” This means it’s a white champagne made from red grapes.

NV/MV: Stands for non-vintage or multi-vintage. It’s common to blend different vintages, or years, of champagne together to achieve a bottle of house-style champagne where the results taste the same to consumers year-over-year.